STAGE APPEARANCE HIGHLIGHTS

Joseph is The Rubicon Theatre Company's first Company Member. Below are highlights of all his shows at Rubicon and elsewhere, that I was able to locate online and through Joseph himself. I have posted them in reverse order, to make it easier for those familiar with this site, and Joseph's work, to find his latest appearance information, however, for those who have not had a look here before, I recommend scrolling through all that is below. It is WELLWORTH the time to look:

THE TEMPEST

FUDDY MEERS

SOUTH PACIFIC

JULIUS CAESAR

7/20 - 22/2018

KING LEAR

3/17 - 4/1/2018

ALL SALES fINAL

2/6 & 2/13/2018

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

2/6 - 23/2017

Joseph, as Fred, is in the center of the 2ns row from the top.

INCOGNITO

9/13 - 10/1/2017

Incognito marks Joseph's 30TH APPEARANCE on the RTC Stage!!! Joseph appears as Actor One in this mysterious and beautiful new play about the intersection between memory and identity. He will play six roles:

Thomas Stoltz Harvey, a pathologist who conducted the autopsy on Einstein’s brain in 1955. His obsession with discovering the secrets of Einstein’s brain has unintended disruptive consequences.

Victor Milner- an early 20th century Brit. Henry Maison’s pre and post-operative consultant. Patient and gentle.

Anthony- a contemporary British former historian, and a patient of Martha Murphy, grappling with a brain disorder known as confabulation.

Richard Walsh- a contemporary British married to Brenda Walsh- deeply troubled.

Jon Williams- an early 20th century British professor eager to study the brain of Henry Maison.

Otto Nathan- a mid-20th century German executor of Einstein’s will, dedicated and loyal.

MY FAIR LADY

This very accomplished young woman, Kimberly Hessler, is playing the title role in Rubicon's "My Fair Lady" and we think she is a total revelation! We discovered her talents in auditions and are thrilled that she will become a member of Actors Equity Association in this show! Kimberly graduated from USC with a major in Vocal Arts and a minor in Musical Theatre and was a Finalist of LA’s Next Great Stage Star 2014. Recent credits include: "Pride and Prejudice" (Mary Bennet), "Les Misérables" (Cosette) and "Spelling Bee (Olive)." According to Producing Artistic Director Karyl Lynn Burns, "Kimberly is a vulnerable, versatile actress with one of the finest voices we have ever heard – a pure, true, soprano who makes it seem effortless. Come see her transformation from a "Cockney flower-seller" to a proper lady. We're all going to say we knew her when! For tickets, go to www.rubicontheatre.org or call (805) 667-2900.
Photos by Jeanne Tanner!!!

A few publicity photos from "My Fair Lady," with Joseph Fuqua, Kimberly Hessler and Rudolph Willrich. Photos by Jeanne Tanner!!!

A few publicity photos from "My Fair Lady," with Joseph Fuqua, Kimberly Hessler and Rudolph Willrich. Photos by Jeanne Tanner!!!

A few publicity photos from "My Fair Lady," with Joseph Fuqua and Kimberly Hessler. Photos by Jeanne Tanner!!!

A few publicity photos from "My Fair Lady," with Kimberly Hessler. Photos by Jeanne Tanner!!!

A few publicity photos from "My Fair Lady," with Kimberly Hessler. Photos by Jeanne Tanner!!!

A few publicity photos from "My Fair Lady," with Joseph Fuqua and Kimberly Hessler. Photos by Jeanne Tanner!!!

A few publicity photos from "My Fair Lady," with Joseph Fuqua and Kimberly Hessler. Photos by Jeanne Tanner!!!

A few publicity photos from "My Fair Lady," with Joseph Fuqua, Kimberly Hessler and Rudolph Willrich. Photos by Jeanne Tanner!!!

Our production of My Fair Lady is performed with two pianists, who are onstage during the show. And we are fortunate to have two brilliant musicians deftly bringing this score to life every night- Lloyd Cooper, our Musical Director (who also plays 1st piano) and Chris Kimbler, playing 2nd piano. Here they are during a tech rehearsal last weekend!!!

The set for "My Fair Lady" is loading in and it's going to be loverly! Check out the pattern and painting on the floor. Set designer Thomas Giamario does it again. Tickets going fast and many dates are sold out. Call (805) 667-2900 or go to www.rubicontheatre.org.!!!

KING LEAR

A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN

VCR 3/7/14 TIME OUT ARTICLE :LINK HERE - SEE ONLINE VERSION POSTED BELOW THIS PAPER VERSION.

AN INTERVIEW WITH REBEKKAH TRIPP

ROMEO AND JULIET

7/8 - 8/4/13

Joseph's Summer, 2013 RTC
Fearless Shakespeare Class

23.5 HRS

4/1/2013 and 4/7/2013

OUR TOWN

3/6/2013 - 3/31/2013

March 6–31, 2013
Pulitzer Prize-Winning ClassicOur Town

Written by Thornton Wilder
Directed by Jenny Sullivan

Set in Grover's Corners, a quintessentially American town at the turn-of-the-last-century, Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning play is a powerful and poetic reminder of the precious nature of everyday existence. As the Stage Manager in Rubicon's production, Artistic Director James O'Neil narrates Wilder's immortal tale of birth, love, marriage, death and daily life. "Oh earth, you're too wonderful for anyone to ever realize you," says Emily, played in our production by Lauren Patten (Rubicon's Anne Frank). Actors Dillon Francis, Joseph Fuqua and Rod Lathim also play pivotal roles in this Great American classic. Peter Hunt, who lit a production with Wilder himself as Stage Manager before becoming a Tony Award-winning director, joins the creative team as lighting designer.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE NEWS ON THIS PRODUCTION AS IT BECOMES AVAILABLE!!!

Set in Grover’s Corners, a quintessentially American town at the turn-of-the-last-century, Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play is a powerful and poetic reminder of the precious nature of everyday existence. As the Stage Manager in Rubicon’s production, Artistic Director James O’Neil narrates Wilder’s immortal tale of birth, love, marriage, death and daily life. “Oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anyone to realize you,” says Emily, played in our production by Lauren Patten (Rubicon’s Anne Frank). Local actors Dillon Francis and Joseph Fuqua also play pivotal roles in this Great American classic.

March 6 – 31, 2013

Our Town

Written by Thornton WilderDirected by Jenny SullivanScenic design by Thomas S. GiamarioSound design by Jonathan Burke

Life, so precious, is probed in Ventura production of 'Our Town' this month

Someone still needs to hear those words, James O’Neil was saying in a tiny room just off the stage at the Rubicon Theatre Company in Ventura one evening last week right before a rehearsal.

Those words are from Thornton Wilder’s timeless “Our Town,” which the Rubicon ushers in the door with the last of three previews tonight, an opening gala Saturday night and shows through the end of the month. Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1938 play speaks to life, death, love, marriage, community and so much more as set in small-town America around the turn of the last century.

Last month marked the 75th anniversary of its Broadway debut and, as Wilder biographer Penelope Niven noted recently in The Wall Street Journal, celebratory stagings will be held across the country and around the world — including the recent “national” run at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., the same venue where Abraham Lincoln was shot.

“Our Town,” Niven wrote, “still speaks across cultures, across time zones, across languages.” It is by some accounts, she continued, “the most produced American play ever.”

“It is incredibly relevant,” said O’Neil, the Rubicon co-founder and artistic director who is pulling double duty on this one by playing one of the crucial “Our Town” roles, that of the stage manager.

Then-New York Times critic Frank Rich argued in an essay a few years ago that the true American faith still endures in “Our Town.” Rich contrasted its words with the greed of the financial crisis that lingers over our collective heads and wrote that the play’s distillation of life and death is “desperately needed” now so Americans “can remember who we are — and how we got lost in the boom before our bust.”

“It’s who we want to be,” O’Neil said, picking up the theme, “and we continually have to work at it.”

Every generation, he added, has to recommit to those ethics — honesty, straightforwardness, care for others, thoughtfulness.

“Every generation has to earn it,” O’Neil continued, “and that’s the usefulness of this play. Someone needs to hear it.”

That hasn’t been lost on the younger generation, at least cast-wise. Lauren Patten, 20, and Ventura native Dillon Francis, 22, play Emily Webb and George Gibbs, respectively, and their characters’ marriage is at the play’s heart.

Patten spoke of the play’s universality, adding, “I just think it’s some of the most beautiful words you can say in the canon of American theater.”

Francis loves the way it’s written and observed, “It’s a wonderful monument to how people can relate to everyone.”

Big thoughts on life

The Ventura production marks a homecoming of sorts for the Wisconsin-born Wilder. Right around 100 years ago, Wilder was a student at Thacher School in Ojai, in his midteens. There, he wrote what is thought to be his first produced play, “Russian Princess.”

It was the start of an American icon. Wilder, who died in 1975, would go on to teach at the University of Chicago and Harvard, write a screenplay for director Alfred Hitchcock and grace the cover of Time magazine. He won three Pulitzer Prizes — for the novel “The Bridge of San Luis Rey,” the play “Skin of Our Teeth” and of course, “Our Town.”

Playwright Edward Albee, no slouch himself with three Pulitzers, picked “Our Town” as the finest serious American play — and not, he wrote, for “its giant Americanness.”

“It is a superbly written, gloriously observed, tough and breathtaking statement of what it is to be alive, the wonder and hopeless loss of the space between birth and the grave,” Albee said.

The play’s central theme, as Wilder once wrote, is the relation between the countless “unimportant” details of our daily life and the great perspectives of time, history and other matters.

In the end, main character Emily learns that each life is “inestimably precious” — though the realization of that is seldom present to us. Or as Emily asks in the final act, “Do any human beings realize life while they live it? Every, every minute?”

The play, set in the fictional town of Grover’s Corners, N.H., in a 1901-13 time frame, is presented in three acts — titled simply “Daily Life,” “Love and Marriage” and “Death and Eternity.”

“It’s a marvel,” O’Neil said, “how you think of it as having this country homespun wisdom and humor in it, but in the end, it’s pretty hard-hitting, what it says about death and marriage. By the time of the third act, you realize how deep the thoughts are, and how universal they are. And it’s not going to change in 100 years, or 5,000 years.”

Patten agreed, saying, “People think it’s this old-time play about life in 1900, but it’s not.” The play, she said, speaks to everyone.

“It’s not just Emily; it’s every girl,” Patten said of her character. “It’s not George, it’s every boy. You recognize the same feelings you’ve had, and what you went through. The feelings are so similar.”

Shades of intimacy

The play fits right in with Rubicon’s 2012-13 season. After a few lean years economically, O’Neil and others felt that the Rubicon had become too insular and needed to reconnect with the community and remind them that it’s there.

Similarly, he noted, “Our Town” speaks to what community means.

The Rubicon isn’t just bringing the play to the community, it’s putting the community in the play. This will be a “theater-in-the-round” feel, with seats on the stage and above the stage for intimate and unusual views of the action.

The theater built a ramp leading down from center stage and into the crowd, where characters will run or walk as they speak lines, adding to the close feel. This “total environment” production is not a first for the Rubicon — the theater has used it for productions such as “Fiddler on the Roof” — but it’s pretty eye-catching, even in a rehearsal.

Audiences will notice a couple other peculiarities. Per Wilder’s desires, the play is done with little scenery, no real set to speak of and minimal props. Other than period costumes, O’Neil noted, it’s pretty much all tables, ladders and chairs.

Many of the props, he added, are mimed. O’Neil offered a vivid demonstration of how, in the soda fountain scene where he makes strawberry ice cream sodas, he has to mimic pulling the soda jerk forward and then pushing it back, because that’s how it squirts out the confection.

Francis, who did a youth production of “Our Town” at Rubicon several years back, spoke of how he had to learn to convey the weight of a prop, such as a milk glass, through mime.

The other rarity involves O’Neil’s stage manager character. In “Our Town,” the stage manager is the guide to Grover’s Corners and offers worldly perspective. As such, he’s out of time and moves back and forth in time; O’Neil will be wearing contemporary clothes rather than a period costume.

The stage manager also breaks down the so-called “fourth wall” and speaks directly to the audience. This, said O’Neil — who could think of maybe a handful of well-known plays that do so — will be “very tricky,” because the audience isn’t used to it and could feel the need to react or respond. If so, he might just throw in an ad-lib.

He’ll also avoid looking directly into people’s eyes and look between the seats in an attempt to make them feel more comfortable.

In character

Over the years, in various adaptations, O’Neil’s stage manager character has been played by such greats as Paul Newman, Hal Holbrook and Frank Sinatra. O’ Neil thinks he knows why.

“You get to say a lot of cool things,” he said. “The stage manager is a folksy philosopher. He’s a likable guy. There’s a certain part of any actor that wants to be liked. We try to train ourselves away from that, but at the same time it’s ingrained in any actor. You want to be liked; it’s part of why you are an actor.”

The stage manager, he added, also lacks a proclivity for judgment, another attractive quality. Said O’Neil: “As soon as I started speaking the words and started getting inside the role, I realized, ‘Oh yeah, oh yeah, this is a pretty cool role.’”

Elsewhere, Patten and Francis also talked acting shop.

Patten said her Emily character is “going through the firsts of everything in her life — first love, her first wedding. She has this innate curiosity. She wants to find the truth. She’s always seeking, to the very end.”

Patten is a Chicagoan who called out of the blue a few years ago and wanted to be in Rubicon’s production of “The Diary of Anne Frank.” Or as O’Neil remembered it, “She was convinced she should be in that play, and so were we after we saw her do her thing.”

She has since moved to Los Angeles to pursue the acting thing. “Our Town” marks her fifth Rubicon production. Said Patten: “I feel very at home here.”

Francis can beat that; he grew up in Ventura, has been a Rubicon regular since he was 9, and has done more than 20 shows there. He now splits time between Ventura and Goleta, where he’s getting an acting degree at UC Santa Barbara.

He said his George character in “Our Town” likes baseball “and probably likes sports too much. But he’s a decent guy. He cares about the things around him, though he doesn’t act like it. By the end, you find out how much he cares.”

Francis said his toughest challenge might be the final act, by which his George character has endured major tragedies in his life. He has no lines there.

“It’s very emotional,” Francis said. “He can’t bring himself to speak at all. That’s difficult. To try to relate that is very trying.”

It was typical theater chitchat that likely has echoed across the ages, to the plays the Greeks and Romans put on in ancient times — the same ancients the stage manager character references in “Our Town.”

It could play in Grover’s Corners, in Washington, in Ventura, anywhere. It is our town.

‘Our Town’

Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play runs through March 31 at the Rubicon Theatre Company, 1006 E. Main St., Ventura. There is a preview at 8 tonight and an opening-night gala at 7 p.m. Saturday. Regular performances are at 2 and 7 p.m. Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $25 for tonight’s preview and $150 for Saturday’s gala (includes a party and post-show reception at City Hall). Regular tickets are $39-$49, including five rows of special seating on the stage. Call 667-2900 or visit http://rubicontheatre.org.

Taken from RTC's 20TH Anniversary Video. You can see Joseph stage left between the umbrellas.

AN AMERICAN TANGO

10/27-28/2012

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This is a fabulous multi-media performance, a true American love story, and a beautiful blend of dance, theater, and music.
Per Joseph, himself: "Um...I am in this. Ok, yes, I am in a Ballet. I narrate and kinda have to dance. A little. No 'walk of the cat' (pas de chat?) or 'neck of the foot' stuff (can't spell that in french)...but ANYHOO. I am in a Ballet."

State Street Ballet’s launches its 2012-2013 season with the World Premiere of AN AMERICAN TANGO, an original full-length ballet conceived and Written by Guy Veloz, directed and choreographed by William Soleau, and produced by Michael Roush and Rodney Gustafson. The full-length ballet is based on the life and true love story of Frank and Yolanda Veloz, considered the greatest ballroom dance duo of the 1930s and 40s.
Their passionate romance and notorious friends catapulted them from the steamy clubs of Havana and Miami, to Broadway, and finally, Beverly Hills, and the world of Hollywood film.
Mr. Soleau has created a touching tribute to Frank and Yolanda’s love affair with their art, their many colorful friends, including Dutch Schultz, Walter Winchell, and Florenz Ziegfeld, and most importantly, each other.
He has created over 80 original dance works in the course of his career, including several for State Street Ballet. Mr. Soleau’s STARRY NIGHT based on the life of Vincent van Gogh, was seen in Santa Barbara last year, and made use of a spoken character role to help the audience understand the historical narrative. Mr. Soleau’s new work, AN AMERICAN TANGO, will feature the versatile theater and film actor JOSEPH FUQUA as a character witness, literally, to Frank and Yolanda Veloz’ passionate marriage and exciting circle of friends, which included legendary Broadway producers, Hollywood filmmakers, and notorious Las Vegas mob dons.

HERE ARE SOME PICTURES OF JOSEPH TAKEN DURING THE DRESS REHEARSAL OF AN AMERICAN TANGO

PRIVATE LIVES

9/8 - 30/2012

Private Lives
September 8 - September 30, 2012

Our final production of the season
is “gorgeous,
dazzling and fantastically funny,”
according to the New York Times. Elyot and Amanda,
once married, meet by
chance at a hotel where they are honeymooning with their
new spouses. Despite
their perpetually stormy relationship, sparks fly and they
cannot resist their own feelings.
They impulsively elope in the middle of the night, only to
be caught days later by their
jilted spouses in a most compromising situation. Filled with
the kind of witty repartee
that could only come from the pen of the mighty Noël
Coward, this play has had
numerous successful productions in Broadway and the West
End, boasting stars ranging
from Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton and Alan Rickman to
Gertrude Lawrence,
Maggie Smith and Kim Catrall. Don’t miss this stylish,
savvy story about the people we
can't live with—or without.

The elegant
and sophisticated comedy by
Sir Noël Coward,
produced in association with
Laguna Playhouse, begins previews
this Wednesday, September 5th
and opens Saturday, September
8th!

Passion,
anger, love, laughter and romance
all
shaped by Noël Coward's
wit and comic genius sets the
stage for perpetually dueling
lovers Amanda and Elyot. In Coward's
most celebrated comedy, the two
divorcees unwittingly book adjoining
rooms while honeymooning with
their new spouses, and quickly
realize the folly of their new
marriages. Impulsively and in
the dead of night, they flee
only to be caught days later
by their jilted spouses while
in a most compromising situation.
Don't miss Noël Coward's
stylish, savvy comedy about modern
romance and the people we can't
live with-or without.

The Community Sponsor for PRIVATE
LIVES is Santa Barbara
Bank & Trust and the Hotel
Sponsor for the production
is the historic Pierpont Inn,
which offers a 15% discount
on accommodations, food and
beverages when Rubicon is mentioned.

Private Lives Actor Biographies

EILEEN DESANDRE (Louise)
was a member of the company at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for sixteen
seasons. Roles there included Bessie Berger in Awakeand
Sing, Maria in Twelfth Night, Brighella in The Servant
of Two Masters, Bertha Katz in Paradise Lost, Flute
in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Juliana Tesman in Hedda Gabler,
Maddalena Guarneri in The Magic Fire (also at the Kennedy Center),
Monica Reed in Present Laughter, Speed in The Two Gentlemen
of Verona, Holofernes in Love's Labour's Lost, Mme. Pernelle
in Tartuffe, Madanika in The Clay Cart, Gertrud in On
the Razzle, The Maid in Blood Wedding, and many others.
Recent roles include the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet at Riverside
Theatre in New York City, Mom in The Spin Cycle at Innovation
Theatre Works, and the title role in Jeanne d'Arc au Bucher in
French at the Oregon Bach Festival (Marin Alsop, conductor; James Robinson,
director). Work at other theatres includes Intar, Theatre for the New
City, and The Promenade in New York; and regional productions at Fulton
Opera House, Milwaukee Rep, St. Vincent Theatre and Bloomsburg Theatre
Ensemble.

JOSEPH FUQUA (Elyot)
is a Yale School of Drama graduate who appeared on and off-Broadway in Brighton
Beach Memoirs and 110 in the Shade (Lincoln Center). Joseph’s
regional creditsinclude Octavius Caesar in Antony and Cleopatra at
Actors Theatre of Louisville, Alexei in A Month in the Country at
Arena Stage, Iago in Othello for Shakespeare Festival of Dallas,
Louis in Angels in America at Dallas Theater Center and Six
Dance Lessons in Six Weeks opposite Mary Jo Catlett at Ensemble
Theatre in Santa Barbara. On television, Joseph guest-starred in “The
X Files,”“The Profiler,”“Brooklyn South,”“The
Pretender,”“Chicago Hope,”“Star Trek: Deep Space
Nine,”“Becker”and the pilot “SecondNature.”Film
credits include “Ed’s Next Move,”“David Searching,”“Heyday”and
J.E.B. Stuart in “Gettysburg,”a role he reprised in the film “Gods
and Generals”with Robert Duvall. In 2000,Joseph joined Rubicon
Theatre as their first company member. He has appeared in over 25 productions
with Rubicon, including Hamlet (title role - Indy Award),
The Boys Next Door (Indy Award), The Rainmaker (Robby Award
and Rep Award), All My Sons (Ovation Award), Doubt (directed
by his dear friend Jenny Sullivan), Sebastian in Jim O’Neil’s The
Tempest, and he most recently starred in The Mystery of Irma
Vep at Rubicon. Joseph is overjoyed to be working again at the magic
theatre that Jim and Karyl Lynn built!

JULIE GRANATA (Amanda)
is thrilled to make her Rubicon debut, reprising the role of Amanda with
this wonderful cast. An Ohio native, Julie began her career in Chicago
after receiving her B.F.A. in Acting from The Theatre School at DePaul
University. Some of her favorite Chicago roles include Girl in Edward
Albee's The Play about the Baby and Dawn in Lobby Hero (both
at the Goodman Theatre), Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train (Steppenwolf
Theatre), Don't Drink the Water, Meet John Doe, Streeterville, Whale
Music, The Women, Present Laughter, Stage
Door, Balm in Gilead, Merchant of Venice, Our
Town, and Merrily We Roll Along. Recent West Coast theatre
credits include The39 Steps (Ensemble Theatre Company),
Sally in I Am a Camera (B-Street Theatre), Boston Court’s
World Premiere production of Futura, Hedda in Hedda Gabler,
the Restoration comedy London Cuckolds (Ark Theatre),
and Bright Ideas at the Avery Scriber Theatre. Julie has appeared
in feature films, television, commercials, the live radio broadcast performance
series “Stories on Stage”for NPR, and is a proud member of
AEA. She would like to thank her husband Eric for 10 years of inspiration.

ALYSON LINDSAY (Sybil)
holds a B.A. from UCLA and an M.F.A. from the Royal Scottish Academy
of Music and Drama. She recently returned from New York where she played
Wendy in the developmental reading of David Zippel’s modern-day
adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest (set in the
Hamptons) at theRoundabout Theatre. Previous Rubicon credits include
Miranda in The Tempest, The Countess in Picasso at
the Lapin Agile, Ophelia in Hamlet (opposite Joseph Fuqua),
Cherie in Bus Stop and Understudy in Maltby and Shire's
World Premiere musical A Time for Love. Other favorite
theatre appearances include What the Butler Saw (Blue
Orange Theatre, Birmingham), Rocket Science (Edinburgh
Fringe Festival, World Premiere and winner of Richard Rodgers Best New
Musical Award) and Jerry Springer: the Opera (George
IV, Edinburgh Fringe Festival). Alyson appeared in “That's English” for
Spanish TV, participated in Chipping Norton Theatre Sonnet Walks
and Didcot Living Word Walks for Scary Little Girls Productions, performed
her self-devised cabaret More Than High School Musical at
The Arches in Glasgow,and had roles in commercials for 1% for the Planet
and Yardi (with some very good-looking canine co-stars). Endless thanks
and love go to all at Rubicon, the little theatre that COULD, her ever-supportive
and beloved family, and her precious fiancé, with whom she very
much enjoys fighting.

MATTHEW FLOYD MILLER (Victor)
has appeared on Broadway in Not about Nightingales (Circle in
the Square) and The Invention of Love (Lincoln Center Theatre).
Off-Broadway credits include Another Part of the Forest (Peccadillo
Theatre Company), Of Mice and Men (Urban Stages) and Letters
from Cuba (Signature Theatre Company). Matthew’s regional credits
include Tom Stoppard’s Rock‘n Roll, The Pillowman and The
Underpants (ACT Theatre in Seattle), Hysteria (Wilma
Theatre), Around the World in Eighty Days and Desire Under
the Elms at San Jose Rep (Dean Goodman Choice Award for the latter), The
Bald Soprano (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey), This Wonderful
Life (Portland Center Stage), The Tempest and the U.S. premiere
of A Prayer For Owen Meany (Playmaker’s Rep), the World
Premiere of Theophilus North (Arena Stage and Geva), The Violet
Hour (Dallas Theatre Center), The Matchmaker with Andrea
Martin (Ford’s Theatre), Enchanted April (Arizona Theatre
Company), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Old Globe), The
Lady of the Camellias and The Mousetrap (Pioneer Theatre
Company), Two Rooms (Chester Theatre Company), Romeo and Juliet (Portland
Stage), and Quills and Wilder, Wilder (Berkshire Theatre
Festival). TV and Film credits include “Law & Order,”“Pop
Rocks”(Audience Award - Best Short, Breckenridge Film Festival), “All
Good Things,”“End of the Line”and “Telegenic.”Matthew
trained at the NYU Graduate Acting Program.

Photo Flash: Rubicon Theatre Opens PRIVATE LIVES Tonight,
9/8

The Royal Wedding. The Queen’s Diamond
Jubilee. The Olympic Games and Ceremonies. Rubicon
Theatre Company celebrates our “love affair”with all
things British with Private Lives, an elegant and sophisticated comedy
by Sir Noël
Cowar, opening tonight, Saturday, September 8 at the theatre’s
intimate home in Ventura’s Downtown Cultural District. A co-production
of Rubicon and Laguna
Playhouse, Private Lives runs Wednesdays through Sundays through
September 30. Get a first look at the cast onstage below!

Full of Coward’s signature snappy repartee
and razor-sharp wit, Private Lives is a fantastically funny farce
that follows two self-absorbed
divorcees, Elyot and Amanda, who unwittingly book adjoining hotel rooms
while on honeymoon with their new spouses. Despite their perpetually
stormy relationship, sparks fly and they find they are still irresistibly,
magnetically and dangerously drawn to each other. Impulsively, Elyot
and Amanda elope in the middle of the night, only to be caught days
later by their jilted spouses in a most compromising situation.

Fuqua (Rubicon’s first
company member and a Ventura resident) recently appeared at Rubicon
in many guises in the hilarious
satire The Mystery of Irma Vep. Other Rubicon appearances include the
title role in Hamlet (for which he won an Indy Award), Doubt, The Tempest,
Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Man of La Mancha, The Rainmaker (Robby
Award and Rep Award) and All My Sons (Ovation Award).

A Yale School of Drama graduate, Fuqua has also appeared
on and off-Broadway in Brighton Beach Memoirs and 110 in the Shade
at Lincoln Center. Regional credits include Octavius Caesar in Antony
and Cleopatra at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Alexei in A Month in
the Country at Arena
Stage, Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks opposite Mary
Jo Catlett at Ensemble Theatre in Santa Barbara, Iago in Othello
for Shakespeare Festival of Dallas and Louis in Angels in America at Dallas
Theater Center.

Granata, an Ohio native, began her career in Chicago after receiving
her BFA in Acting from The Theatre School at DePaul University. Favorite
roles include Girl in Edward
Albee's The Play about the Baby and Dawn in Lobby Hero, both at
the Goodman
Theatre. Other Chicago credits include Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train
at Steppenwolf
Theatre, Don't Drink the Water, Meet John Doe, Streeterville, Whale
Music, The Women, Present Laughter, Stage Door, Balm in Gilead, Merchant
of Venice, Our Town and Merrily We Roll Along.

Granata’s recent West Coast theatre credits include The 39 Steps
for Ensemble Theatre Company, Santa Barbara, Sally in I Am a Camera
(B-Street Theatre), Boston Court’s World Premiere production
of Futura, Hedda in Hedda Gabler, the Restoration comedy London Cuckolds
(Ark Theatre), and Bright Ideas at the Avery Scriber Theater.

Matthew
Floyd Miller, assaying the role of Amanda’s second husband
Victor (originated by Olivier) also received critical acclaim during
the Laguna leg of the run.

Miller appeared on Broadway in Not About Nightingales directed by Trevor
Nunn at Circle in the Square, and Lincoln Center Theatre’s
The Invention of Love. Miller’s Off-Broadway credits include
Another Part of the Forest, Of Mice and Men, and Letters from Cuba.
Regional credits include Tom
Stoppard’s Rock‘n Roll, The Pillowman, The Underpants
(ACT Theatre in Seattle); Hysteria (Wilma
Theatre); Around the World In Eighty Days and Desire Under The
Elms (San Jose Rep –Dean Goodman Choice Award for the latter);
The Bald Soprano (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey); This Wonderful
Life (Portland Center Stage); the U.S. Premiere of A Prayer For Owen
Meany; Arena
Stage and Geva’s World Premiere production of Theophilus
North; The Violet Hour (Dallas
Theatre Center); The Matchmaker with Andrea
Martin at Ford’s Theatre; Enchanted April (Arizona
Theatre Company); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The
Old Globe); The Lady of the Camellias and The Mousetrap (Pioneer
Theatre Company); The Tempest (Playmaker’s Rep);Two Rooms (Chester
Theatre Company); Romeo & Juliet (Portland
Stage); and Quills, Wilder, and Wilder (Berkshire Theatre Festival).

Ventura native Alyson Lindsay (Schuster) joins the Rubicon cast of
PRIVATE LIVES as the put-upon, petulant Sybil. A graduate of UCLA and
the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Lindsay recently returned
from New York, where she played fashionista Wendy in the staged reading
of David Zippel’s
contemporary adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest at theRoundabout
Theatre. Previous Rubicon credits include Miranda in The Tempest, The
Countess in Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Ophelia in Hamlet (opposite
Fuqua) and Cherie in Bus Stop. Other favorite theatre appearances include
What the Butler Saw (Blue Orange Theatre, Birmingham), Rocket Science
(Edinburgh Fringe Festival, World Premiere and winner of Richard
Rodgers Best New Musical Award), and Jerry
Springer: the Opera (George IV, Edinburgh Fringe Festival).

Another newcomer to the group is Eileen Desandre as the dour French
maid Louise. DeSandre is an Oregon Shakespeare Festival veteran of
sixteen seasons. Roles include Bessie Berger in Awake and Sing, Maria
in Twelfth Night, Brighella in The Servant of Two Masters, Bertha Katz
in Paradise Lost, Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Juliana Tesman
in Hedda Gabler, Maddalena Guarneri in The Magic Fire (also Kennedy
Center production), Monica Reed in Present Laughter, Speed in The Two
Gentlemen of Verona, Holofernes in Love's Labour's Lost, Mme. Pernelle
in Tartuffe, Madanika in The Clay Cart, Gertrud in On the Razzle, and
The Maid in Blood Wedding.

Most recently, DeSandre played the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet (Riverside
Theatre), Mom in The Spin
Cycle (Innovation Theatre Works), and the title role in Jeanne
d'Arc au Bucher performed in French for the Oregon Bach Festival. Other
theatre credits include performances at New York venues Intar, Theatre
for the New City and Promenade; and regionally at Fulton Opera House, Milwaukee
Repertory Theatre, St. Vincent Theatre and Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble.

PRIVATE LIVES is directed by Andrew
Barnicle, whose extensive credits include more than 100 productions
at North Coast Repertory Theatre, La Mirada Theatre for the Performing
Arts, San Diego’s Theatre at Old Town, Michigan’s Meadow
Brook Theatre, The Colony
Theatre in Burbank, San Jose Rep, the Odyssey Theatre in Los
Angeles, and The Laguna
Playhouse, where Barnicleserved as artistic director for nearly
two decades.

Barnicle’s favorite projects at Laguna include Shirley Valentine,
Moonlight and Magnolias, An Empty Plate in the Café du Grand
Boeuf, Red Herring,
Art; World Premieres and U.S. Premieres of multiple works by Bernard
Farrell, Richard
Dresser’s The Pursuit of Happiness and Rounding Third; Steve
Martin’s The Underpants, and Somerset Maugham’s The
Constant Wife, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, An Enemy of
the People, and the World Premiere adapta­tion of his wife Sara’s
translation of Carlo
Goldoni’s The Liar.

Rubicon Theatre to present Noël Coward's
'Private Lives'

Stormy normal

'Private Lives' in Ventura"I think very
few people are completely normal, really, deep down in their
private lives."

English playwright Noël Coward wrote that piece of dialogue,
spoken by the character Amanda in his comedic play "Private Lives," around
1930, long before everyone used Facebook to turn their private
lives into public fodder. The line still rings true, because despite
all the shared details, social media merely brushes the rough surface
of who we really are.

All the wisdom and wit of Coward's "comedy of manners," which
has been revived numerous times on Broadway and London's West End,
will be onstage through Sept. 30 at the Rubicon Theatre Company
in Ventura.

In the play, an urbane divorced couple, Elyot and Amanda, end
up in hotel rooms next to each other while on honeymoons in France
with their new spouses, Sybil and Victor. Elyot and Amanda's passionate
sparring and sharp back-and-forth are revived, and of course they
are still attracted to each other.

Coproduced by the Laguna Playhouse, the show is directed by Andrew
Barnicle and stars Joseph Fuqua as Elyot, Julia Granata as Amanda,
Alyson Lindsay as Sybil and Matthew Floyd Miller as Victor.

Noël Coward, swift to find bon moments for his sophisticated bon
mots, reveled in the setup for his ultra-British comedy "Private Lives." Two
just-married couples find themselves on the first day of their honeymoons
happily ensconced in adjoining balcony apartments at a sumptuous French
resort.

Elyot is starting a new life with the young Sybil, a pretty and proper
girl, five years after he and his previous wife, Amanda, divorced over
what sounds like irreconcilable differences. Amanda, on the other hand,
and other balcony, has wed the staid Victor, whose self-satisfied spirit
she hopes will soothe her battle-worn one.

If there was a mismatch before between Elyot
and Amanda, who fought verbally and physically in their emotional
time together, there is
at least a different balance between each of the new couples. Very
quickly, Amanda and Elyot discover their proximity and ponder a new
world of possibilities: Should they remain in their new, stifling situations,
or break loose? After all, muses Elyot, "Honeymooning is a hugely overrated
amusement." All of the fun, of course, is in the second option, so
after witty and sophisticated interchanges, Elyot and Amanda bolt for
Paris, leaving their new partners totally confused, but quickly united
in their decision to confront the scandalous pair.

Naturally, Elyot and Amanda are ecstatic at first in their elegant Parisian
digs, but they are who they are, and neither is going to be a doormat,
despite all of the high-flying repartee. A battle royal ensues, Sybil
and Victor arrive at just the worst moment, and the sorting out begins.

Highly skilled farceurs are required for the play, and the Rubicon has
them. Joseph Fuqua and Julia Granata, reprising roles they played in
the previous Rubicon-Laguna Playhouse co-production, are quirky, combative
and deliver the Cowardisms with élan. Coward, who played Elyot
when the comedy debuted in the 1930s, scattered memorable throwaway lines
throughout his works, and conversation, like glittering stars in a night
sky. When his characters say "Let's be superficial," it's a very amusing
line, but it's also a sideways comment on an element of British society,
one Coward learned to float through like a champ.

Photo by Ed Krieger

Victor (Matthew Floyd Miller)
and Sybil (Alyson Lindsay) are left behind by their spouses in "Private
Lives."

Julie Granata and Joseph
Fuqua are quirky and combative as a divorced couple who abandon
their new spouses and run off
together in "Private Lives."

Fuqua colors his lines with a slack-jawed British
delivery, squeezing the comic juice out of each. Granata also
is a wizard at nuance, and of course both rise to the battle. Ultimately,
Coward's underpinning for the characters is their yearning to be
challenged, not to settle for drab when drama makes them feel so
much more alive.

Matthew Floyd Miller as Victor and Alyson Lindsay as Sybil accomplish
the challenging task of bringing the more practical pair to life. Miller
is rigidly proper, with a touch of fire beneath his facade, and Lindsay,
a Ventura native with a rising theatrical career, braces Sybil's charming
bewilderment with a jolt of deep-down determination. Eileen DeSandre,
in her brief scene as the disdainful French maid, draws her own share
of laughs.

The men are garbed in carefully correct but
slightly eccentric British style while the women wear a stunning
series of boudoir, evening and travel wear, with costume design
by Julie Keen.

The experienced hand guiding the production
is that of director Andrew Barnicle, who served as artistic director
of the Laguna Playhouse for nearly two decades and includes among
his projects plays at North Coast Repertory Theatre, Colony Theatre,
San Jose Rep and the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles.

Dazzling repartee between the pair of divorced
sophisticates at the center of “Private Lives”is one reason Noël
Coward’s 1930 comedy of bad manners never goes out of style —though
not the only one. Among frequent revivals, the Rubicon Theatre/Laguna
Playhouse co-production stands out in capturing the profound and
sometimes painful emotional currents that seethe beneath the witty
bon mots lobbed with impeccable panache by ex-spouses Elyot (Joseph
Fuqua) and Amanda (Julie Granata), for whom no daylight exists
between feuding and reconciliation.

Remounted in Ventura with most of the cast
intact from last year’s
Laguna Beach run, Andrew Barnicle’s staging deftly balances
situational hilarity with the poignancy of romantic illusion —starting
with honeymooning Elyot’s wishful thinking that “Love
is no use unless it’s wise and kind and undramatic.”

Fat chance —even in this opening scene
any tenderness that Fuqua’s Elyot can muster for his naive,
much younger bride (Alyson Lindsay) is laced with just enough acid
from previous marital wounds to put the lie to this ideal. When
Granata’s engagingly free-spirited Amanda coincidentally
arrives at the same resort with a pompously conventional new husband
(Matthew Floyd Miller) in tow, it’s clear her second marriage
is a futile attempt to escape her own impetuous nature.

The unstable chemistry that drives Elyot and
Amanda back into each other’s arms is convincingly visceral, and their second-act
flight to her Paris apartment is a masterpiece of tonal orchestration;
there’s near-musical precision in the way these fine performers
can pivot from lovebirds to mortal combatants in a single emotional
beat.

Director Barnicle’s comic flair extends to lulls in the warfare,
particularly with the arrival of the abandoned spouses in the final
act when the two couples, perched on a cramped settee, make a deliciously
awkward attempt at small talk. Even Elyot and Amanda’s two-minute
silent truces are filled with expressive physicality in their doomed
attempts to keep from lapsing into old patterns. As timeless as human
nature, “Private Lives”remains a wickedly insightful
portrait of change we can’t believe in.

Joseph Fuqua and Julie Granata have at it in Private
Lives as Alyson Lindsay and Matthew Floyd Miller look on.

Private Lives Reviewed

Noël Coward at Rubicon Theatre in Ventura

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

By Charles Donelan

In Private Lives, playwright Noël Coward tackles what
is perhaps the biggest problem that modern couples face: how to manage
each other. When two newlywed, upper-class British couples take adjacent
honeymoon suites at a luxurious French seaside resort, the last thing
that Elyot (Joseph Fuqua) and Amanda (Julie Granata), who have been
divorced for five years, expect is that they and their new spouses —Sybil
(Alyson Lindsay) and Victor (Matthew Floyd Miller) —will be sharing
a balcony.

From this delirious premise onward, it’s all very symmetrical.
The formerly married characters discover that they are still in love
and run away together to Paris, leaving the freshly jilted newlyweds
to team up and track down their wayward mates. In the hands of a less-gifted
writer, this could get cutesy, but as done by the prince of sophistication,
it’s anything but cute. In fact, even though it is now more than
80 years since Private Lives debuted on a London stage, this
powerful play still retains the capacity to shock.

As Elyot Chase, the Noël Coward character
who gets many of the play’s best lines, Fuqua is dazzling.
He has great timing, his expressions and gestures are consistently
original and well-thought-out, and he clearly relishes this chance
to run wild with witty repartee. Granata’s fluid, alluring,
and at times threatening turn as Amanda is also a tour de force,
and together they carry the action forward with seemingly effortless
momentum. Rather than being punished for regressing by getting back
together, Elyot and Amanda are eventually rewarded for making the
unconventional decision to follow their sophisticated intuition about
one another rather than submit to the weight of convention and circumstance.

The actions that constitute the scandal at the
play’s core are
a series of arguments that begin playfully enough but, in a couple
of instances, wind up resulting in actual violence. Perhaps standards
have changed, and today we are more cognizant of the unfunny reality
of domestic abuse, but I suspect that all the audiences who have seen
this play over the decades have reacted with some dread to the stunning
slaps that punctuate Coward’s punch lines.

When Victor and Sybil discover Elyot and Amanda
at the apartment in Paris, they are flailing about on the floor in
a full-blown free-for-all.
Later, after a hilarious breakfast sequence that puts all four characters
together on the same sofa, we learn of the burgeoning affection between
Victor and Sybil when they, too, succumb to the seemingly irresistible
pull of the lover’s spat. The reactions of Elyot and Amanda,
who draw closer to one another as they watch the other two descend
to their animalistic level, could stand for the point of view of the
audience —appalled, certainly, but too fascinated to look away.

As the French maid Louise, Eileen DeSandre lightens
the final act, but there’s still little in the way of consolation for those
who would prefer to see a less savage and desperate version of how
couples manage one another. When the curtain rings down on this outstanding
production, there’s a distinct sense of relief that these people
have finished their incessant and destructive bickering —at least
for that night.

Noel Coward's decidedly British take on the absurdities of love (and
divorce).

Full of Coward’s signature snappy
repartee and razor-sharp wit, Private Lives is a fantastically
funny farce that follows two self-absorbed divorcees, Elyot and
Amanda, who unwittingly book
adjoining hotel rooms while on honeymoon with their new spouses.
Despite their perpetuallystormy relationship, sparks fly
and they find they are still irresistibly, magnetically and dangerously
drawn to each other. Impulsively, Elyot and Amanda elope in the middle
of the night, only to be caught days later by their jilted spouses
in a most compromising situation.

The opening gala for Private Lives is Saturday, Sept. 8 at 7 p.m.
(black-tie optional). The $150 ticket price includes a pre-show champagne
reception (beginning at 6:15 p.m., the show, a post-show party with
the cast, director and special guests, and a tax-deductible donation
to Rubicon.
The comedy continues through September 30

Classic Plays Revived at PCPA, Rubicon

Thursday, September 6, 2012

It sounds like the stuff of high tragedy —or high comedy. In
fact, it is both, as area theatergoers will discover this weekend.

To the north, PCPA Theaterfest in Santa Maria is opening a rare production
of a Chekhov masterpiece, The Three Sisters. To the south,
the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura is presenting one of Noël Coward’s
most perfectly constructed comedies, Private Lives.

On one level, these plays represent the yin
and yang of 20th-century theater. The first is despair-filled, while
the second is dazzlingly
witty. But dig under their surfaces, and you’ll find surprising similarities.

Both feature passionate people whose romantic
longings lead to pain at least as often as they lead to pleasure.
What’s more, the
central characters of each are members of a dying aristocracy. “These
are aimless, scared people,”said Andrew Barnicle, director of Private
Lives.

It’s a comment that could easily have
come from Roger DeLaurier, director of The Three Sisters.
That drama focuses on —you
guessed it —three sisters who find themselves stuck living in
a stultifying, dull, provincial Russian city. Unsure how to make their
way back to Moscow, they watch passively as their brother’s predatory
wife gradually takes over the household.

In contrast, the confused characters at the center of Private
Lives, Amanda and Elyot, do take action to end their misery:
They get divorced and subsequently marry other people. But after
a chance encounter at a hotel, their incendiary love-hate relationship
catches fire once again, leaving them as intoxicated and irritated
as ever.

“I feel that people have a misguided sense of who Noël
Coward was, and what kinds of plays he wrote,”said Barnicle,
former artistic director of the Laguna Playhouse, where this production
originated last year. “The mythology is his plays consist of
skinny people walking around in tuxedos with martini glasses in their
hands, throwing out quips.

“In fact, his characters, while eccentric, to be sure, are very
real; they couch their wants in sardonic humor. What I tell the actors
is, find a real reason why they feel the need to behave artificially.”

For The Three Sisters, the actors must
convey a sense of why their characters can’t escape from their self-imposed prisons.
But don’t confuse a lack of action with a lack of drama. “The
stakes for these characters are so high,”DeLaurier said, “and
their striving is so intense. [Through their stories] Chekhov tackles
some of life’s big questions. What is meaningful in life? What
keeps us from living the life we dream of? What gets in the way?”

In Chekhov, a sad surface is interrupted by
moments of pseudo-absurdist humor. In Coward, an undercurrent of
sadness and worry informs an amusing surface.

“I’ve always appreciated the quality of an audience’s
laughter more than the quantity,”said Barnicle. “If the
audience is really listening, and living along with these characters,
there are probably five major ‘identification laughs’along
the way. Those are the ones you want. That means the audience is following
the story and understanding who these people are.”

Another similarity between the plays is the
youth of the major characters, virtually all of whom are under 35.

“When Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton
did Private Lives (in
the 1980s), they created the notion that it was a play for an older
couple,”Barnicle said. “I think that’s wrongheaded.
You see these characters in the twilight of their adolescence. When
somebody is acting this way in their sixties, it’s much harder
to sympathize.”

Besides, he added, the physical fight between
the two leads isn’t
especially amusing when it looks like one or the other may end up breaking
a hip.

“We’ve got an Amanda who is just as strong physically
as Elyot,”Barnicle said. “When they start throwing each
other over couches, you’re more worried for him than you are
for her. It’s certainly spousal abuse, but it’s even-handed,
and you realize these people live for this. They want to fight! It
is funny, but it’s a little horrific at the same time.”

This production is Barnicle’s first attempt
at Coward, just as The Three Sisters is DeLaurier’s first Chekhov.

“I’ve been waiting my whole career to do it,”DeLaurier
said, noting that while Chekhov is an integral part of the academic
curriculum, his plays seldom receive full productions. This is PCPA’s
first since The Seagull in 1980.

In a sense, it’s a perfect time to get reacquainted with the
Russian master. Like his characters, many of us find ourselves dazed
and confused as we navigate a world that is changing at a ridiculously
rapid rate. DeLaurier understands that feeling of dislocation, and
sees it reflected in one of his favorite Chekhov quotes: “Any
idiot can survive a crisis. It’s the day-to-day living that wears
you out.”

4•1•1

The Three Sisters previews September 6-7 and runs September
8-30 at Severson Theatre (Allan Hancock College, Santa Maria). Call
922-8313 or see pcpa.org. Private
Lives previews September 5-7 and runs September 8-30 at Rubicon
Theatre (1006 E. Main St., Ventura). Call 667-2900 or see rubicontheatre.org.

Private Lives in Ventura —Why
Noel Coward Lives On

Bright young sophisticates Amanda and Elyot divorced five years ago.
Now they are each on honeymoon with new (and rather dull) spouses Victor
and Sybil. Happily for theater audiences, both new couples have chosen
the same sumptuous French hotel to celebrate their nuptials. After
serious rows with their new mates, Amanda and Elyot accidentally converge
on adjoining balconies and an evening of effervescent wit and charming
cruelty is set in motion.

Private Lives is the epitome of the comedy of bad manners,
perfected by Noel
Coward between the world wars in London’s West End and on
Broadway. By all critical accounts of the period, this thin, brittle
piece of gossamer fluff was considered little more than a naughty audience
teaser and pleaser. In his sharp essays, Coward the Playwright, biographer John
Lahr quotes noted 1930s journalist Ivor Brown’s response
to the play: “Within a few years the student of drama will be
sitting in complete bewilderment before the text of Private Lives,
wondering what on earth these fellows in 1930 saw in so flimsy a trifle.

Brown
was not alone in his estimation of Coward’s comedy. Theater history
texts often relegate Coward to a single paragraph about British Theater.
But
this has not stopped his works from being constantly revived, from Broadway
(most recently the 2011 production of Private
Lives with Kim Cattrall) to other professional theaters (GTC Burbank
produced a Private Lives, staged by Jules Aaron,earlier this year)
to seemingly every community theater in the English-speaking world. In
1931 more than 200 plays and musicals opened
on Broadway. Among the new plays in that group, Private Lives is
the only one to have a serious afterlife, with frequent revivals into the
21st century.

So
why does this play —and so many other Coward pieces —continue
to thrive as their contemporaries withered? This is the question put
to actors Joseph
Fuqua and Julie
Granata, who brought Elyot and Amanda to critically acclaimed life
in last year’s Laguna Playhouse production, under the direction
of Andrew Barnicle. A retooled version has now moved to the Rubicon
Theater in Ventura. In separate phone interviews, both stars wax
enthusiastic about the play, production, Barnicle and each other. It
turns out one of the great reasons for the long life of the play is that
artists don’t find it thin, brittle or fluffy. Instead they find
it filled with real life and love within its sophisticated demeanor.

Joseph Fuqua

Twelve
years ago Joseph Fuqua was the first actor to join the Rubicon Theater
Company, and he thinks of it as his artistic home, where he has performed
in nearly 30 productions, including the title role in Hamlet and
varied characters in last year’s Irma Vep. The camp and
overwrought caricatures of Irma Vep define much of Fuqua’s
professional work, but he insists even the craziest characters must be
played in truth. “I am a character actor in somewhat of a guise
of a leading man. I have always been able to be a leading man to
friends and people who know me, but the general theater world at large
does not see me that way. Mostly I do chameleon-like roles —oddballs.
I enjoy sinking my teeth in those roles.”

Fuqua’s take on Elyot begins with the light touch
of Coward’s signature arch personality, but adds a strong strain
of the real depth in love and anger that runs through Elyot’s
relationship with Amanda. “People say I am born to be Noel Coward; he’s
known for that urbane, detached wit —flippant and sophisticated
without responsibility, always sort of surface. But the relationships
are real. Their fight has got to be muscular. We have to hurt
each other.”

Fuqua
says that director Barnicle understands. “I am such a big fan of
Andy’s because he goes there. Maybe because of the [general influence
of the] Actors Studio, the heart and meat of any play has to be discovered.
Things are funnier where there is heart. The Three Stooges don’t
make me laugh, but Laurel and Hardy do because I know they care about
each other. Charlie Chaplin makes me laugh because there is always
some heart in there. You can see the course of human events in the humor.
That is what we have tried to do and I think accomplished in the production.”

He is however, quick to point out that in order for
the heart to work in a Coward play, the style must be in place. From
correct dialect to perfect sets and clothing (even something as small
as a cigarette case), everything needs to be right. With the outer
world created, the inner characters can shine through.

Joseph Fuqua and Julie Granata

In
this case the characters’incredibly selfish and undeniable emotional
attachment is both horrible and horribly funny. Fuqua recalls the director
helping him discover the way into both aspects of the play. “In
his director’s notes, Andy tells us to delight and savor in the
moment. Elyot is purely in the moment. All he wants is to pull
Amanda into the moment with him. She has more of a moral compass, an
outside eye of society. This might all be vapid in itself, but if you
really allow the two characters to be really in love in that moment and
let fly, then you are set up to attack the ugliness that also comes with
relationships.

“But there’s
nothing wrong with the moment if you can make it work. The humor is there
in
the surface things that are delightful, but the message about the complexity
of love and being allowed to be yourself is powerful for a modern audience.
Even if it is old, a good play can speak to a modern audience. A good
play exposes the humanity in a way that people can relate to.”

Granata, who
is enthralled with her role of Amanda, has no patience with those who
dismiss Coward and, particularly, Private Lives. “I
believe that an audience will go with you if you take them there with
conviction. In entertainment across the board, modern sentiment is to
play for the lowest common denominator —dumb things down and make
things easy to absorb. I hate that! I think audiences are desperate for
complicated story and complicated people. If you take something that
has stood the test of time as Noel Coward has, and approach it with as
much truth and humanity as you have within you, then people are going
to recognize that truth at the end. That seems to me to be universal
throughout all art. The more we just illuminate truth, the more people
in the audience will recognize a piece of themselves. Then it doesn’t
matter if they get some archaic reference.”

Julie Granata and Joseph
Fuqua in "Private Lives"

One
specific reference is a line from Amanda: “I haven’t any peculiar
craving for Chinamen or old boots!” In fact, Granata was
so horrified by the racism of the line that she asked that it be stricken,
but Barnicle insisted on keeping the script intact. The line does shock
audiences out of their comfort zone for a moment and gives some interesting,
if unpleasant, dimension to Amanda. Later Elyot has an equally questionable
line for today’s sensibilities:

Amanda: I was brought up to believe it was beyond the pale for a man
to strike a woman.

Elyot: A very poor tradition. Certain women should be struck regularly,
like gongs.

As upsetting as the sentiment may be, it strikes
a chord of relationship reality with Granata. “To be too illuminating about my
own marriage, that is absolutely something my husband would say, to
be funny in private. He’d

never
say it publicly, but to me he finds it absolutely hilarious.”That husband
is Chicago improvisational comedian Eric Hunicutt. "He is very smart,
very well read, and likes to say things purposely to rile me up. That
is what Elyot is doing —trying to get Amanda’s pre-feminist
feminism sentiments up. He’s trying to say something to irritate
her. They want to get under each other’s skin.”

Granata is a self-confessed Anglophile. Her love of all things English
began with an annual family TV evening of Julie Andrews in the
Sound of Music. Her understanding of what it meant to be an actor
came from realizing Andrews could be both Maria and Mary Poppins. Then
she fell in love with Coward upon seeing an “adventurous”production
of Present Laughter in a community theater in her childhood
home of Toledo. She then got to act in the same play in Chicago as
her first job after graduating with a theater degree from DePaul.

She recalls that first production. “They sound so sophisticated
and fancy and everything I was not at 12. I don’t remember much
about the production other than thinking if I could just wear more
hats in my life, I would be a better person. That’s what I took
away from that first production. Hats make you more sophisticated!”

Julie Granata

Throughout
her 20s Granata longed to play Amanda, but she was too young and found
herself auditioning for Sybil some dozen times. “I am a horrible
Sybil,”she claims. So why is she better for Amanda? “I
want to say because I am mature, but I am going to guess it is because
I am jaded. When I was younger I was always the person they made
be the old lady or the mom. I was so angry about this at 15. Slowly,
I realized this is the person I am going to be —I am a leading
lady, but I am not an ingenue. My personality suits that better. I feel
much more comfortable and feel like the last five years I have just been
waiting and waiting.

“When I got the call for Amanda, it was
the biggest, brightest day. I feel this is a beginning of a great
part of my career. I have
never been the person who bemoaned not playing Juliet.

I
didn’t
do naive well at 14, and I don’t think I would have played her
well in my 20s when most women play the part.

But I am really looking forward to Lady Macbeth and after Amanda
comes Martha. I had the pleasure of working with Mr. Albee and he is
such an observer. I have had this fantasy of him sitting and watching
a production of Private Lives and translating that to Who’s
Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.”

Even her favorite line from Virginia Woolf helps
color her view of Coward’s lovers: “‘George and Martha, Martha
and George. Sad, sad, sad.’ I think about that sentiment
in the second act of Private Lives in that Amanda and Elyot
are tragic and train wrecks, but wow, do we love watching that tragedy.
Thank goodness they found each other in this beautiful world that Noel
Coward created for us. The enduring line in Act 2 is ‘How
long will it last, this ludicrous, overbearing love of ours?’I
think everyone in a relationship asks those questions.”

Joseph Fuqua and Julie Granata

Another iconic
line from Private Lives encapsulates the couple’s relationship —“That
was the trouble with Elyot and me, we were like two violent acids bubbling
about in a nasty little matrimonial bottle.”With her longstanding
desire to play Amanda finally met, the real test of the production would
be her chemistry with Elyot —could they find that violent acid?
At the first reading, sitting opposite Fuqua, any fears were abated.
They fell into a rhythm instantly. “He is so clearly Elyot, and
we are so meant to do this play together. Every moment we’ve spent
in rehearsal and on stage is just a joy. I don’t know how that
occurred, but the trust we had on day one —I can tell you with
certainty that is rare. You get good at building that trust through tricks
and skills, but it is magical when that trust and chemistry exists immediately.

They were so in sync with each other and the “violent acids”that
they would forget they were in a play telling a story. Fortunately,
Barnicle was able to reel them in.

Both
Fuqua and Granata are grateful for Barnicle’s ability to know just when
to step in. “You have this outside voice turning you back toward
center if you get off the path —shining a light if you are not
illuminating a particular piece of the story. In the best scenario, that
is how theater works. The relationship between actor and director.”

Picks of the Week

PRIVATE LIVES Through Sept. 30. Rubicon
Theatre Company closes its season with Noel Coward’s elegant
and sophisticated comedy that follows two self-absorbed divorcees who
unwittingly book adjoining hotel rooms while on honeymoon with their
new spouses. $25-$54. Call 667-2900 or visit www.rubicontheatre.org.

Coloring outside the lines

Fall plays challenge convention

This fall, Ventura County theaters wrap up their
2012 seasons and look ahead to 2013 with a collection of shows about
transgressors, rule breakers and envelope pushers. An apparently innocent
little girl plots wrongdoing. Teens yield to the siren call of their
bodies. Adults violate political and racial barriers, and siblings
and parents torment each other with psychological warfare. Even Death
and the Devil shirk their professional responsibilities.

What’s more, all this is deeply American, with plays and musicals
rooted in the identity of our country. Sure, there are Grease, Damn
Yankees and 1776, with their souped-up cars, baseball gloves
and feather quills. But even plays from our broader artistic family speak
to our passion for justice and independent thought, as in the South African
drama Hello and Goodbye and the German roots of Spring Awakening.
If our art is any indication, Americans admire boundary breakers. Test
the limits, and see one for yourself.

Private Lives, Rubicon Theatre Company (through Sept.
30)
Rubicon closes out its 2012 season with Noel Coward’s stylish 1920s
comedy about a pair of exes who run into each other while on their honeymoons —with
other people. When sparks fly, the old flames ditch their other halves
and elope. Featuring slinky dresses, martini glasses and plenty of witty
banter, the show is being co-produced by the Laguna Playhouse and directed
by Andrew Barnicle. Starring Eileen DeSandre, Joseph Fuqua, Julie Granata,
Alyson Lindsay and Matthew Floyd Miller. 1006 E. Main St., Ventura,
667-2900, rubicontheatre.org

STARRING JOSEPH FUQUA AND WINSLOW CORBETT

(Joseph and Winslow starred in RTC's You Can't Take It With You as Ed Carmichael and Alice Sycamore respectively in 2008.)

Passion, anger, love, laughter and romance all shaped by Noël Coward’s wit and comic genius sets the stage for perpetually dueling lovers Amanda and Elyot. In Coward’s most celebrated comedy, the two divorcees unwittingly book adjoining rooms while honeymooning with their new spouses, and quickly realize the folly of their new marriages. Impulsively and in the dead of night, they flee only to be caught days later by their jilted spouses while in a most compromising situation. Don’t miss Noël Coward’s stylish, savvy comedy about modern romance and the people we can't live with—or without.

Videos from Laguna Playhouse for Private Lives! The first is from the first read-through, the second shows clips from a performance of the show:

Private Lives

at Laguna Playhouse

Reviewed by Melinda Schupmann

March 31, 2011

First performed in 1930 by Gertrude Lawrence, Laurence Olivier, Adrianne Allen, and Noël Coward, this Coward play epitomizes a genre from a period that owed its appeal to upper-class sophistication and quick wit. This production, directed by Andrew Barnicle, is a wonderful homage to Coward's facility for humor and rapid repartee.

An elegant terrace on the French Riviera provides the setting for two couples to begin their honeymoons. In adjoining suites are Elyot Chase (Joseph Fuqua) and his new bride, Sybil (Winslow Corbett), and Victor Prynne (Matthew Floyd Miller) and his bride, Amanda (Julie Granata). The complication is that Elyot and Amanda were previously wed in a tempestuous and quarrelsome marriage. When these two realize their dilemma, they urge their new spouses to leave immediately before disaster strikes. Of course there wouldn't be any fun if that happened, so the worst occurs, and Elyot and Amanda rekindle their love affair and run away together.

Granata is a standout as the worldly-wise sophisticate who has married this time for stability but may be realizing as early as the honeymoon that her stolid partner might be a bit dull. Miller plays the upper-crust Brit with just the right amount of determination and conventionality.Corbett is likewise delightful as the ebullient Sybil, girly and romantic, opposite Fuqua's indifferent and understated cynicism.

Coward's second act is slight, and it depends on strong characterizations to arrive at his amusing ending. Barnicle lightly underplays its latent sexuality and focuses more on a mixture of the characters' ennui and requisite physicality when needed. Its dry one-liners add texture to the simple storyline.

Bruce Goodrich's fine set establishes the elegant mood well, and Paulie Jenkins' beautifully lighted second-act apartment adds an artistic backdrop to the production. Costumes by Julie Keen likewise capture the glamour of the '30s.
Coward's views on marriage were mixed: "I've sometimes thought of marrying...then I've thought again." In this play, he cleverly sets forth the clashes of romance and mayhem that make up these marital relationships. Barnicle nails the delivery.

in Theater-Los Angeles
Private Lives by Noel Coward at the Laguna Playhouse
COWARD ON THE BEACH

Noël Coward’s oft-produced classic Private Lives is indeed,
as one of his characters states, jagged with sophistication. The story
is of a divorced, fiercely contentious, and veddy British couple who,
having reconnected on the honeymoon night of their new marriages, run
off with each other to Paris, abandoning their respective spouses.
Once they rekindle their stormy association, it becomes clear that
their litigious love is intrinsic – indeed, necessary – to
their relationship. The subject matter – affairs, abusive love – is
still somewhat shocking, but the story is as thin as a tea biscuit.
It is the sophisticated, droll, and entertaining language which is
the meat of the play. Coward once wrote, “The critics [of the
original 1930 production] described Private Lives variously as ‘tenuous,
thin, brittle, gossamer, iridescent, and delightfully daring’.
All of which connoted in the public mind cocktails, repartee and irreverent
allusions to copulation, thereby causing a gratifying number of respectable
people to queue up at the box office.” Without actors who capture
the Cowardesque witticisms with nuances that drip in irony, all of
the jagged sophistication can be deadly dull.

Fortunately,
Andrew Barnicle’s tight direction and nifty casting at the Laguna
Playhouse create a most entertaining evening. The aforementioned volatile
couple is Elyot and Amanda. Joseph Fuqua’s take on Elyot is unadulterated
neocolonialist – unlike the British Imperialists who would take
political control of a country, Fuqua is intent on cultural control;
he wields his vocabulary as a hunter would brandish a gun on the African
plains – it’s almost as if Mr. Fuqua is thinking, “Point.
Aim. Shoot.” Julie Granada is cool, elegant and feral as Amanda;
she is the lioness who enjoys outwitting the hunter. Matthew Floyd
Miller portrays Victor, Amanda’s new husband, with an overstuffed
bravado, a perfect choice for one who is threatened by the hold that
Amanda’s previous paramour has on her. Winslow Corbett infuses
Sybil, Elyot’s bride, with a flagrant and whiny neediness, born
of her inability to control her groom; Corbett’s choice to portray
her character with an immature youthfulness validates that her character
has yet to develop the prowling game-playing technique that Elyot finds
so fascinating in Amanda.

Set
designer Bruce Goodrich opted for the look of a chic Parisian hotel
for Amanda’s
flat, a relief from the over-decorated Bohemian set designs seen in
previous productions. Likewise, Julie Keen’s costume design treats
us to the style of the everyday sophisticate, versus the Hollywood
glamour look. Paulie Jenkins full-stage lighting is serviceable, but
lacks nuance – the lights on the actors seem to be above the
action, instead of emanating from the windows or the many lamps on
stage. On the other hand, Corinne Carillo’s sound is astute and
directional; music does indeed seem to be coming from a radio or a
party down below the terrace that the honeymooners share.

There
is a reason that Private Lives is given life on the boards world-wide,
with over
a dozen revivals on the West End and Broadway alone: audiences are
starved for literate dialogue. As the modern age threatens to destroy
the art of communication, Noël Coward’s work reminds us
that sophisticated language, which some may see as hoity-toity, actually
nourishes our soul.

tonyfrankel @ stageandcinema.com

Private Lives
scheduled to close April 10 at time of publication
for tickets, visit http://lagunaplayhouse.com/onstage/2011/private/

Lush Private Lives @ Laguna Playhouse

Noel Coward's timeless wit is as pleasing as watercrest sandwiches or scones and butter. It's irresistible, especially in his now classic Private Lives and works to perfection when properly cast. In the new revival at Laguna Playhouse, Andrew Barnicle has assembled a glorious ensemble, one that knows how to bring out Coward's subtleties with panache, a somewhat rare quality for an American troupe.

In the 1930s Coward was quite courageous to put forth such wildly flambuoyant characters as Elyot (Joseph Fuqua) and Amanda (Julie Granata). His frivolous attitude toward divorce and adultery as told through their eyes was hardly commonplace, a far cry from the loose morality of today. Cowardesque wit and flair helped audience digest character flaws and accept Elyot and Amanda more readily. In any case, Coward himself as a homosexual took a rather perverted view of the marriage ame, exposing spousal abuse openly and frankly. Either accept the possible negative aspects of what you are getting yourself into, or stay clear of it altogether...and that, he did. On the other hand, it is wise to see that being together is not a consistent bed of roses, and many diehard happily marrieds applaud the naughty diversions as a natural part of the bargain. The fights certainly highten the sexual entanglements that follow.

Laguna's ensemble is divine, with Fuqua and Granata sublime in every way. Fuqua was always meant to play this role of Elyot, the man/child flippant egocentric who must have things as he pleases or not at all. "Some women should be struck regularly like gongs" is one of my favorite lines, and uttered by Fuqua in character it sounds as natural as rain. Granata is also deliciously wicked and undependable as Amanda. Both actors play off each other superbly. On opening night Fuqua slipped and fell, picking himself up beautifully with "I only had one!" It was a great cover that only a consummate pro could carry off. His Elyot never left him. Matthew Floyd Miller as Victor and Winslow Corbett as Sybil are wonderfully and annoyingly loyal - just the opposite of Elyot and Amanda - and fit their parts to a tee. Julia Etedi is utterly hilarious in her brief appearance in Act III as the disgusted maid. Barnicle's pacing is just right throughout and the action never drags for a split second. The Act II verbal sparring builds to a crescendo and the ensuing physical fights are tightly choreographed.

Bruce Goodrich has designed an elegant set of Amanda's flat in Paris, and the first act adjoining hotel room balconies on the French Riviera offer a nice tease to the plush interior to come. Julie Keen's costumes are wonderfully luscious particularly Amanda's stunning black evening gown in Act I.

If you like your wit lyrical and lilting, look no further than to this elegant production of Private Lives. It's a treat on every level. Hopefully, it will play at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura, but not until the end of next season, so take the scenic drive to Laguna and see it now!

Amanda and Elyot are having one of their famous battles, and she seems to be winning. At one point she smashes a record over his head – the old 78 rpm kind, heavy and brittle; he winces. Before long, their elegant apartment is a shambles and the warring lovers are red-faced and breathless with rage.

Noël Coward's "Private Lives" is a masterpiece of 20th-century comedy. It is not, however, politically correct. That's one reason why it's so enjoyable to modern audiences, says Andrew Barnicle, who is directing an upcoming production of "Private Lives" at the Laguna Playhouse."It was a different time – that's what you have to remember," Barnicle said before a rehearsal last week at the playhouse, during which actors Julie Granata and Joseph Fuqua, playing Amanda and Elyot, worked through the fighting sequence of the second act with physicality and precision (and a few loud curses when things went wrong).

"They hit each other, and they mean it," Barnicle said of the play's famously bickering couple. "They break things over each other's heads. They try to hurt each other. The trick is to make it seem like a fight between equals. And to be honest, she starts it – at least the physical part of the fight."

Julie Granata as Amanda, Matthew Floyd Miller as Victor, Winslow Corbett
as Sybil, and Joseph Fuqua as Elyot in the Laguna Playhouse production of
" Private Lives," which opens on March 20. Former Laguna Playhouse artistic
director Andrew Barnicle has returned to direct this show, his first at the
playhouse since leaving last year.
TEXT BY PAUL HODGINS, PHOTO COURTESY LAGUNA PLAYHOUSEMORE PHOTOS

It's important not to shy away from Amanda and Elyot's conflict. Their violence toward each other is an integral part of their relationship. "To somehow apologize for that would be terribly dishonest," Barnicle said.

That pursuit of honesty also led Barnicle to cast younger actors than those who usually play the roles.

"What's happened to this play over the decades is that the roles are so good that older, experienced actors have demanded to play them. I wanted to go back to the age the script says they are, which is a couple in their 30s." Barnicle pointed out that in the original 1931 production of "Private Lives," the playwright himself played Elyot opposite Gertrude Lawrence as Amanda. He was only 31; she was two years older.

"I think the roles of Amanda and Elyot manifest themselves in different ways if the actors playing them are in their 60s rather than their 30s. If these people are still wandering aimlessly around the world and having these kinds of fights in their 60s, somehow that doesn't make sense to me. They should know better."

NO 'HAPPILY EVER AFTER' TO THIS STORY

For those who don't know the story, Amanda and Elyot used to be an item, but their passion was accompanied by huge clashes; they're equally flirtatious and headstrong. They are divorced, but meet again at the beginning of "Private Lives" when each re-marries in France at the same moment and the two couples, by chance, end up in adjoining honeymoon suites at the same hotel. The spark of romance is rekindled, and Amanda and Elyot run off together, abandoning their new spouses.

But this is a Noël Coward play, and Britain's master of cynicism would never dream of giving a pair of bounders like Amanda and Elyot a happily ever after. A second-act donnybrook is much truer to form for them.

Like the fighting, the cruel abandonment of a bride or groom – on the honeymoon, no less – works only if those behaving badly are still young, Barnicle insists.

"Look, 30-year-olds have life lessons they desperately need to learn, and this couple is going to learn them in the course of this play. If you're 60 you either learned those life lessons long ago or you're a complete idiot. And an audience has very little sympathy for an older person who's acting that stupidly."

Barnicle had several criteria in mind when he was casting the play.

"I wanted actors who were really good with British accents because I didn't want to spend money on a dialect coach. And I wanted performers who could fly over furniture and break and wreck stuff. They had to be physical."

Now a busy freelance director, Barnicle was artistic director of the Laguna Playhouse from 1991 until he left last year. One of the agreements he made before his departure, Barnicle said, was that he would return to direct "Private Lives."

"We programmed it when I was still here and I always wanted to do this play. I've never directed Coward before. And I realized it's been a while since there was a local professional production of 'Private Lives.'"

Asked if he would ever again run a theater company, Barnicle paused. "I would never say never. But I've got a full plate right now."

Barnicle directed "Moonlight and Magnolias" in February at L.A.'s Colony Theatre; he recently did a reading of "The Merchant of Venice" in San Diego and will direct "The Lion in Winter" at North Coast Repertory in Solana Beach. Barnicle is even thinking about acting again, something he hasn't done since 2008.

"I'm having a lot of fun right now," Barnicle said during a break as he watched his actors rehearse a scene on the playhouse's patio. "I wouldn't want that to change."

Barnicle makes assured return to Laguna with 'Private Lives'

There was a bittersweet quality to Saturday's opening-night performance of "Private Lives" at the Laguna Playhouse.

The show was preceded by a ceremony honoring former playhouse boss Douglas Rowe, who ran it for many years when it was a lively community theater. Rowe spoke warmly of the good old days before being presented with a gift from current playhouse managing director Karen Wood.Wood also asked "Private Lives" director Andrew Barnicle to take a bow.

Barnicle, the former artistic director of the playhouse, left last year amid downsizing and a change in programming philosophy at the 90-year-old theater. Barnicle and his colleague, former playhouse executive director Richard Stein, spearheaded a two-decade push into full professionalism and self-produced seasons. "Private Lives" epitomizes that era: sumptuously staged, smartly cast, a no-cutting-corners evening of enjoyable theater.

Julie Granata as Amanda, Matthew Floyd Miller as Victor, Winslow Corbett
as Sybil, and Joseph Fuqua as Elyot in the Laguna Playhouse production of
" Private Lives," which opened on March 19. Former Laguna Playhouse artistic
director Andrew Barnicle has returned to direct this show, his first at the
playhouse since leaving last year.
TEXT BY PAUL HODGINS, PHOTO COURTESY LAGUNA PLAYHOUSEMORE PHOTOS

Under Wood's direction, the playhouse has been leaning towards the cheaper and less risky route of presenting pre-existing shows rather than producing them itself. We'll see if that trend continues when the new season is announced. I'm hoping a happy medium can be struck.

Barnicle is an experienced director who's equally adept at character-based comedy, farce and taut drama. "Private Lives" is typical of his assured style.

There are several directorial pitfalls that can bedevil this tart comedy of bad manners.

One is casting actors who are simply too old to play Amanda and Elyot, the pampered, preening and perpetually warring lovers at the center of the action.

Barnicle has cast wisely. Joseph Fuqua and Julie Granata are just the right age for Elyot and Amanda. When the previously married couple meet by chance during parallel honeymoons with new spouses (yes, the first act requires a very willing suspension of disbelief), we can immediately feel the sexual heat that still sparks between them.

As they talk on the side-by-side balconies of their swanky French hotel, we can't help but notice that the only barrier between them is a line of tiny shrubs, easily ignored.

Barnicle choreographs the scene meticulously. The tiny wall of shrubs is respected for a long time. When Elyot finally steals through to Amanda's side, you sense he's broken a much bigger yet invisible barrier: the line of morality.

Giving in to their mutual attraction, Elyot and Amanda sneak away from their spouses to her Paris apartment – a stylish Art Deco hideaway that speaks of inherited wealth and the idleness it affords.

You know what happens next. Their connubial bliss is short-lived. Pillows are thrown. China is smashed. Amanda gives as good as she gets. (Suffice to say she knows how to fight dirty.)

The battle is another reason for casting youthful actors. If Amanda and Elyot seem too old, their combat looks ridiculous, even dangerous. And a young, athletic Amanda who's Elyot's physical equal takes some of the squeamishness out of a scene that, handled incorrectly, can look awkward and very un-P.C.

The other mistake often committed with "Private Lives" is preciousness. Noel Coward's laugh lines are so deliciously, wickedly funny that many directors treat them as mini-events, making too much of the moment. Coward's words become stylized and artificial, like an evening of witticisms encumbered by a play. "Private Lives," despite its puckish humor, is deeper and darker than that, and Barnicle doesn't let us forget it.

Fuqua and Granata find just the right tone. They make their characters' humor seem as natural as it is cruel. Amanda and Elyot are creatures of privilege who are seldom forced to deal with the consequences of their selfishness. Their lofty station allows them to breeze easily through life. In this production, you're left with the feeling that their destructive relationship is the only thing that makes them feel alive.

Matthew Floyd Miller and Winslow Corbett provide an enjoyable counterbalance as the spurned spouses, Victor and Sibyl. He's starchy and combative, full of upper-class outrage and propriety; she's weepy and uncomprehending (Sibyl, a decade younger than Amanda and Elyot, simply doesn't understand the casual barbarism of their world).

Scenic designer Bruce Goodrich and costumer designer Julie Keen are on the mark. Amanda and Elyot live in a world of taste and refinement, which they take for granted. Such surroundings were a luxury indeed in the 1930s, yet this heedless couple treats them as badly as they treat other people.

Barnicle has been busy as a director since he left the playhouse. I hope his schedule doesn't get too crowded to include future work in Laguna. He knows how to stage a crowd-pleasing play – and these days commercial success is more important than ever.